On Friday night I had the pleasureof watching Marie Miyayama's The Red Spot (Der Rote Punkt / 赤い点, 2008) forthe second time at the Deutches Filmmuseum Frankfurt as part of the Nippon Connection Film Special at Japan Week. Thiswas my first time seeing the film in its original 35mm format and the colourswere even more brilliant than in the digital format. In addition to the obvious uses of red withAki’s backpack, her mother’s lipstick, her aunt’s umeboshi, and the dot on themap, there were more subtle uses of red on the curtains in Aki’s room and thedress of Mary in Johannes’s carving of Mary and the baby Jesus.
It’s a beautifully shot film, and Ifound myself even more strongly moved by the actors’ performances the secondtime round which for me is always the sign of a well made film. I was happy that I had seen the film oncebefore with English subtitles for the southern German dialect of “Allgäuerisch”is challenging for me. However, Inoticed that there was much more laughter at this screening of The Red Spotthan there was at Shinsedai 2010 in Toronto because the Frankfurt audiencepicked up on the subtleties of the local humour – especially in the scene whenJohannes has to pick Elias up at the police station and in the scene when Aki’selementary German confuses Johannes.
Marie Miyayama (宮山麻里枝, b. 1972) was also in attendance and tookquestions from the audience after the screening. Miyama was born and grew up in Tokyo. She came to Germany in 1995 to studyfilmmaking at the Ludwig Maximillian University in Munich and she remains basedin Munich. During the Q+A, Miyayamapinpointed the first time she saw Wim Wenders’ Alice in the Cities (Alice inden Städten/都会のアリス, 1974) as being the moment that she fell inlove with European cinema.
Someone in the audience noted that Aki,the main protagonist in The Red Spot, was about the same age that Miyayama waswhen she first came to Germany and wondered if there were any autobiographicalelements in this film. Miyayama repliedthat many personal elements come into her films mainly through her own interestin exploring intercultural themes. Shealso prefers to write her own screenplays in order that she may look deep intoherself to bring some kind of personal truth to her films. However, that being said, it should beremembered that The Red Spot was based on someone else’s story. When Miyayama was working as an interpreter, shehad a female client who came to Germany with just such a red spot on a map andemployed Miyayama to help her find this spot where her family had died on the famed“Romantic Road” (Romantische Straße) between Würzburg and Füssen. In the film, we see one of the most famoussightseeing attractions of the Romantic Road, Schloss Neuschwanstein, in thephotos that Aki finds on her parents’ camera. In real life, the woman that Miyayama assisted was a cousin of the lostfamily, not the surviving child, and as the story was developed into a screenplay manymore fictional elements were added to the plot.
So far, The Red Spot has enjoyed aproper theatrical release in Germany and has been well received at international film festivals. Miyayama remains ever hopefulthat she could also release the film in Japanese theatres. So far, the film has only shown twice inJapan at a festival for women filmmakers and at a German film festival. It will be screened again in December at Waseda University as part of the celebration of 150 years of friendship betweenJapan and Germany.
Miyayama has taken a short maternitybreak from filmmaking but is now working on new projects. With an eye on continuing her exploration ofintercultural themes, she is working on a scenario about a German woman whogoes to Japan. Not wanting to pigeonholeherself as a director; however, this film will be a comedy.
To see more photos from this event,go to my Google Plus profile.
For more information about Marie Miyayama, see her homepage and her profile at Japanese Women Behind the Scenes.
This event was sponsored by Nippon Connection:
